Appreciable Impairment Offenses: If you refuse to take a chemical test, the State might still be able to prove you guilty of an OVI if they prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that you operated a motor vehicle after having consumed some alcohol, drugs of abuse, or a combination of the two and their ability to operate the motor vehicle was appreciably impaired. How does a jury determine “under the influence?” The following is an excerpt from the Ohio Jury Instructions regarding appreciable impairment cases:
“Under the influence” means that the defendant consumed some (alcohol) (drug of abuse) (combination of alcohol and...

Here is a tool that every DUI attorney should have in their arsenal. It is a study entitled, Absorption, Distribution and Elimination of Alcohol: Highway Safety Aspects and it has a number of facts that a jury should know:The time that elapses between the driving of the car and the time of the chemical test can produce significantly different blood alcohol concentrations.
The time that passes from the end of the alcohol intake until the peak alcohol concentration varies from 14 to 138 minutes in one study, to 12 to 166 minutes in another study.
It is impossible to convert the alcohol concentration of...

"Well, aren't you just the cleanest pig in the pen?"That was my father's reaction when I relayed to him what I considered to be a fine piece of attorney-ing. I was a new lawyer assigned a high-profile home invasion robbery case. The newspaper detailed that my client faced decades behind bars if convicted.After plea negotiations with the prosecuting attorney I was able to secure a plea to one felony count and an agreed sentence of "only" five years in prison. I was proud of the work I'd done and felt that my client was lucky to have me. I also...

Help your attorney defend your case by creating a credible time-line of events.
R.C. 4511.19(D) sets forth a three-hour time limitation for the collection of bodily substances for alcohol and/or drug testing. This rule is a change from Ohio's previous law which gave the State only two hours in which to obtain a sample. The time requirement has been adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court in Cincinnati v. Sand, 43 Ohio St.2d 79, 330 N.E.2d 908 (1975) and more definitively at Newark v. Lucas, 40 Ohio St.3d 100, 532 N.E.2d 130 (1988), where the court held that tests in test cases (cases involving a violation of...